This is in stark contrast to the iOS App Store where developer submissions disappear into the electronic ether while Apple decides, in its infinite wisdom, whether your app makes the grade or not. Ostensibly there is a set list of rules and best practices that apps must adhere to, but in reality there is no guaranteed, just-follow-this-recipe way of getting apps into the App Store. With Windows 8, however, the entire process of submission, certification, and promotion will be laid bare. If you fulfil the publicly-available criteria, your app will be swiftly welcomed into the Windows Store; that’s all there is to it.
Getting apps into the Windows Store begins with clicking a button that’s front-and-center in Visual Studio itself. You are then prompted to run a battery of technical tests that ensure that your app is crash-proof and secure — though, curiously, Microsoft has said that if you submit a crashy app they will take on the responsibility of debugging the code and communicating to the developer what needs to be done. Once an app is submitted, developers will be able to follow the process of certification, from pre-processing, to security tests, to technology and content compliance checks. Microsoft is claiming that the entire process will take less than 24 hours — a damn sight faster than iOS, and almost as fast as Android, which is rather impressive given the extra diligence.
Of course, the Windows Store is ultimately Microsoft’s emulation of the Apple’s iOS and Mac App Stores — and in that sense, Microsoft has admitted that, despite their faults, the idea of a curated app store is a Good Thing. Microsoft is so behind the idea of a curated, guaranteed-no-malware Windows Store, in fact, that Metro-style apps will only be available from the Store — you won’t be able to download a Metro app from Download.com, for example.On the promotion side of things, Microsoft tells us that “spotlight” apps — the curated section of the Windows Store — will be hand-picked by humans. You won’t be able to buy promotional positions in any part of the Windows Store, in fact; every featured listing will be entirely dictated by quality and popularity. There’s no mention yet of what percentage of sales Microsoft will take in exchange for the hands-on approach it will be taking, but it has hinted that it will be lower than Apple’s 30%.
For developers, then, the Windows Store is the ideal target — and it plays perfectly into our theory that Windows 8 is primarily a vehicle for producing as many tablet- and touch-friendly apps as possible — but whether Microsoft’s open approach is ultimately beneficial to users remains to be seen. The fact that apps can be made from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will certainly usher in a new age of thousands, and perhaps millions of apps — but at what cost? Will they drown out the good apps — will high-quality apps be able to shine through the cruddy crust of homebrew, copy-and-paste-from-a-tutorial HTML apps?
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